The ‘moderate’ Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas recently provided yet another reason to distrust the PA. The PA has recently “built and named a public hall after [Hajj Amin] Al-Husseini.” Not only that, but Abbas reportedly was the one who ordered this.

Watchdog Palestinian Media Watch translated a report from the Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida which reads (emphasis on original):

“Under the auspices of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, yesterday, Sunday, [Feb. 15, 2026,] Jericho and Jordan Valley District Governor Hussein Hamayel and Jericho Mayor Abd Al-Karim Sidr laid the cornerstone for the Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini Multi-Purpose Hall (i.e., named after Nazi ally and Hitler associate)… District Governor Hamayel emphasized that the laying of the cornerstone was done out of loyalty to the great figures of our people, and according to direct instructions from President [Abbas] regarding the need to commemorate the memory of the leaders and fighters… Jericho Mayor [Sidr] emphasized that the project is intended to commemorate the role of Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini in the Palestinian Revolt…”

To those who know history, this is nothing short of glorifying terrorism and Nazi-collaborators.

Hajj Amin al-Husseini was a member of a prominent Arab clan and the leader of the Palestinian National Movement pre-1948. He instigated riots against Jews in Jerusalem during Passover of 1920, which resulted in mass looting, rapes, six Jews murdered and two hundred Jews injured (p. 28).

A court inquiry into the violence found:

“the Jews were the victims of a peculiarly brutal and cowardly attack, the majority of the casualties being old men, women and children.” (pp. 28-29)

On April 11, 1921, British High commissioner Herbert Samuel met with al-Husseini and made him the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, hoping it would pacify him to the extent “that the influences of his family and himself would be devoted to tranquillity” (p. 29). By making Husseini the Grand Mufti, Samuel had effectively made Husseini the spiritual leader of the Muslim community in Palestine (p. 100). Even worse, this appeasement failed and in 1921 Husseini instigated more riots in Petach Tikvah and Jaffa in which forty-three Jews were killed (p. 29).

Despite Husseini’s support for such violence, he would gain even more authority over the Muslims in Palestine, partly due to the British. The Brits promoted Arab political frameworks parallel to the Zionist institutions and the Supreme Muslim Council (SMC) was born in Jan 1922. This council was given control over all Muslim religious trusts, funds and Sharia courts. The British arranged Husseini’s election as president of the SMC, and thus made him the unchallengeable leader of Palestine’s Muslim community (p. 103). As such, much more bloodshed was inevitable.

On Aug 29, 1929, at the request of the British government, Husseini and other Muslim leaders ‘called for peace’ during the riots, although many Jews suspected Husseini was clandestinely inciting rioters while appearing to call for calm (p. 114). Indeed, during the 1929 Arab revolt, Husseini called for the “slaughtering of “the Jews.” not merely Zionists.” This was despite the fact that “most of the Jewish victims of the 1929 Arab revolt were Jews from the centuries-old dhimmi communities (for example, in Hebron), as opposed to recent settlers identified with the Zionist movement” (p. Loc 201, Kindle).

The violence committed during 1929 against Jews was so violent, it’s hard not to distinguish between the terrorists then and the Hamas jihadis who committed Oct 7.

For example, British police chief Raymond Cafferata, an eyewitness, later testified:

“On hearing screams in a room I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child’s head with a sword. He had already hit him and was having another cut, but on seeing me tried to aim the stroke at me, but missed; he was practically on the muzzle of my rifle. I shot him low in the groin. Behind him was a Jewish woman smothered in blood with a man I recognized a[n Arab] police constable named Issa Sherif from Jaffa in mufti. He was standing over the woman with a dagger in his hand. He saw me and bolted into a room close by and tried to shut me out – shouting in Arabic, “Your Honour, I am a policeman…..I got into the room and shot him.” (p. 114)

Overall, 133 Jews were killed and 339 were injured during the 1929 riots, while 116 Arabs were killed and 232 were injured (p. 116).

In 1937, Husseini issued a declaration to his fellow Muslims, in which he portrayed the Jews as evil schemers who tried to destroy Islam and kill the Islamic prophet Muhammad (for the text see Bostom, The Mufti’s Jew-Hatred). This declaration was published in Berlin in 1938, translated into German, and the Nazis extracted Husseini’s 1937 declaration to distribute among Muslim SS units in Bosnia, Croatia and the Soviet Union (Loc 301, Kindle).

Husseini’s closing remarks of this declaration follow:

“I present to my Muslim brothers in the entire world the history and the true experience which the Jews cannot deny. The verses from the Koran and hadith prove to you that the Jews have been the bitterest enemies of Islam and continue to try to destroy it. Do not believe them. They know only hypocrisy and guile. Hold together, fight for Islamic thought, fight for your religion and your existence! Do not rest until your land is free of the Jews. Do not tolerate the plan of division, for Palestine has been an Arabic land for centuries and shall remain Arabic.” (Loc 470, Kindle)

Eventually Husseini was expelled from Palestine and ended up in Germany, where he spent the remainder of WW2. From Berlin he issued Arabic broadcasts, inciting Muslims to jihad. For example, On May 9, 1941, he broadcasted a fatwa in which he called on Iraqi Muslims to wage jihad against England (p. 305) and “fomented a brutal anti-Jewish pogrom in Baghdad…” (Loc 204, Kindle). Iraqi Muslims killed 128 Jews and destroyed over 1,000 Jewish businesses and homes in 1941 (p. 305).

Husseini also worked for the Nazis, trying to recruit Bosnian Muslims to fight for Nazi SS units (Loc 207, Kindle).

During his March 1, 1944 broadcast Husseini called on Muslims to:

“Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion [i.e., Islam.]” (Loc 210, Kindle)

On top of that, Husseini also tried to prevent Jews from escaping the Holocaust and encouraged Nazi Germany to murder them. For example, Husseini’s request to German, Romanian and Hungarian officials caused the cancellation of 80,000 Jews’ exit visas from Rumania and 400,000 from Hungary (Loc 227, Kindle).

A UN Assembly document presented in 1947, which contained the Mufti’s request to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, includes this annotation:

“As a Sequel to This Request 400,000 Jews Were Subsequently Killed.” (Loc 229, Kindle)

Why ally with the Nazis? To kill Jews.

Husseini explained the thinking:

“It is the duty of Muhammadans in general and Arabs in particular to… drive all Jews from Arab and Muhammadan countries… Germany is also struggling against the common foe who oppressed Arabs and Muhammadans in they are and resolved to find a definitive solution…for the Jewish danger that will eliminate the scourge that Jews represent in the world.” (p. 305)

As a final note, Husseini also developed friendly relations with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) (Loc 240-258, Kindle), the group from which Hamas came from (Art. 2).

After a five hour meeting with the leaders of the MB’s branch in Alexandria on Aug 23, 1946, Husseini concluded:

“I believe the Muslim Brothers are the troops of Allah who shall defeat the troops of Satan.” (Loc 253, Kindle)

With such evil atrocities, why would any ‘moderate Palestinian partner for peace’ honour Husseini by having a town built and named after him? Despite this, the West will continue to promote the PA as a peaceful and moderate option for a 2-state solution. Such is western ignorance of the Middle East.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)